Rikku_Chan";p="597984 wrote:Do you guys have any weight GAIN tracker? Let's just say that being 4'11" and 80 pounds with 3% body fat is just a bit too skinny for me >_<

You can do any tracker you like. All you enter is the units (lbs or kgs), where you are now, and where you want to be. Et voila!

It all sounds just like me. I've been heavy since late elementary school, and it's only gotten worse. Right now, I'm about 5"10 and 275. I could say that I have wide shoulders and am muscular for a girl (true), but that's still not enough of an excuse

I've tried going to Curves off and on for the past 2 years, with some success (at least 10 lbs. lost), and getting off the depo shot has helped, but I'm so selfconscious that I don't like going to gyms and things. What I want to do the most is go to the local swimming pool and do lap swims. Right now I'm trying to get the courage to go just once with my fiance, perhaps in the evening (lap swims are 6am-7:30am or 8pm-9:30pm).

I don't overeat very much, but the occassional icecream slips in that I just can't help. I love veggies, but I'm working 2 jobs so cooking often just doesn't happen. I'm sick to death of frozen healthy meals after eating them almost every day for 1.5 years. I need better lunch solutions that take little to no prep time in the morning, and won't leave me starving all afternoon/evening while working in a physically laborius warehouse job.

I think if I can ever bring myself to go to the pool and check it out, I would love to go in the morning. Good wakeup, and swimming is so low stress on my body.

Stats/Facts:
Asian and Caucasian descent
6 ft 5 in

Start Date:
November 26, 2005 (day after Thanksgiving)

End Date:
Whenever I die

I just wanted to give the people of this thread what I was working with. I also switched my non-existant signature into TickerFactory. I will update the ticker once every week.

Dieting: My initial weight loss started with making changes into my diet. The chief and foremost change was the cut out of processed foods. When you pick up something (anything that is packaged especially with your favorite foods and drinks), check for Partially Hydronated Oils (of any kind) and High Fructose Corn Syrup. Start putting back stuff that contains those items. What is really tragic are things like condiments, canned meals and mixes contain these ingredients. Better yet, start making your own items like chili, ice cream, mayonnaise, hot cocoa mix, etc. Good Eats' Alton Brown of TV Food Network is great for trying to make simple things so you don't have to rely on others to make the simpliest things in life. Just cutting out man-made artificial ingredients might be the jump that most people need.

Other than that, I am not too crazy about fad diets. I keep everything in prospective and eat smaller meals throughout the day. Bringing my lunch helps a great deal since it is impractical for me to go out to eat and save the rest for later.

Exercise: There is no weight loss without exercise. Period. If you drastically change your diet and start losing weight, you are losing some fat but you are losing tons of muscle. It is possible to get into a size 4 and have 30% body fat. That is not good no matter how good you look in clothes.

My whole reason for exercising is not to be lazy. I work at a sit-down job all day and I go home and keep sitting down. Not good. I cut out most video games (that cannot be played at 30 minutes at a time), TV, etc until I started working out. If I work out, then I can fire up WoW. If I don't, then I don't. I started my gym membership in December and I am already going to switch to another gym since this other gym is truly 24/7 and they have a climbing wall. This will let me go to the gym 5 days a week.

It may (or may not) sound like I some kind of gym junkie but I am not. For 30 years, I loathe physical activity. When I hit 325, something snapped. I began looking at the quality of my life. I enjoy my job but my job does nothing physical. So I have to increase my physical activity. You know, I love going to the gym. The best thing happened when I was talking to friend on the phone where I had my arm holding the phone to my ear. I scratched that shoulder and I thought, "Why is my shoulder hard?". I have muscle! Wootage!

Anyways, need a workout plan, try this:
Freetrainers

Right now I am on the weight loss plan where we do light weight and high reps. In March, I will change to Muscle Gain.

Motivation: All this working, I hope to try out for a Sevenman Tackle Football team as a midseason replacement. I hope to be a crazy climbing mofo. I hope to start Kenpo or some other "hard" fighting stance.

Holy crap! Look at all the new people coming out of the woodwork. A truly amazing turnout. I'd like to be the first to welcome all of you new guys here, since you aren't posting in the Getting to Know You forum.

SpookyCat";p="597988 wrote:So, while my Wednesday burito was, in total, around 1400 calories, (o.O) the tortilla only accounted for 330 of those. Whew.

Yeah, I love the "sticker shock" when you start looking up the calories on things you normally eat. Here's a fun example - My standard Taco Bell Meal, pre-diet, was 2 spicy chicken burritos, 2 cheesy fiesta potatoes, and a large Mountain dew; when I looked up the calories in that, it was 1880.

If you happen to like Chipotle, but think that 1400 calories for a burrito is a bit much, you might want to see if your town has a California Tortilla. They make burritos that are very similar to the Chipotle fair, but with fewer calories in general. Their Havanna chicken burrito is only 600 calories (plus or minus a few), which means it fits nicely into my diet, at least in the "treat" category.

I mentioned in my first post that green vegetables are your friend if you're cutting calories, and this seems like as good a place as any to elaborate on that. First, green vegetables contain lots of nutrients that your body needs, without many calories along for the ride. Spinach is really good, and so are asparagus, broccoli, and green beans. The main advantage, though is that you can really fill yourself up with them, so you don't feel hungry. That means that you probably won't cheat on your diet. Personally, my "diet" dinners have usually been some sort of lean meat (reasonable portion size) and tons of vegetables. The meat makes me feel like I've had a "real meal" and the vegetables make me full enough to resist the temptation to snack. I've also been told that the fiber that vegetables contain is helpful in keeping you full for a longer time. I'm not arguing.

[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]

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Yeah, 260 is fun. Right now I have a physicaly demanding job, which is doing well to keep myself from adding more weight.

I need to do more. I know. For some reason I lack the motivation to get going and doing it. I could use some healthy food here too. But I'm wondering if just sticking to salads is a good idea (and know how much I should put on one).

I need to try other foods. -_- Damn this famly and our fatty foods. (As well as that stupid Dibetic genetic line)

Hi there! Yups, I have only signup to give my 2 cents on this matter. I am a CS student, gamer... over all I used not to do much exercise. But I've worked to change that (and I still am).

There are many ways to achieve the objective of being healthy, and there is a way for each person that tries. Personally, I would never go with much of a diet, or pills. Pills are not natural, and a diet is hard to keep. My point of view is that the solution is not a diet, but a whole change of lifestyle. It is not a matter of making an effort to be healthy, it is a matter to change how you spend your day to be healthy. An effort implies that it will end at some point. A change on lifestyle continues forever (hopefully).

The change has mainly two parts, one being the nutrition part, the other being the exercise part. What works best for me is to have a small breakfast (muffin, or just orange juice). A quite large enough lunch (large in the sense of full, with a diverse selection of food per day), and a rather small dinner. Dinner should also be light. That is the theory for food. But... c'mon, some days you're really hungry. Well, it can be that you worked more. Or perhaps some stress condition gets to you. Believe it or not, exercise takes hunger away. You blood goes to your muscles, and you stop feeling hungry. Eating things that make you masticate a lot also helps with hunger (salad, for example). Of course, one exception now and then is not bad, 4 exceptions per week can be too much. Try not too watch too much Food network .
Tips at restaurants, like: order small things. You can always order more, but if you order a lot to being with, then you feel compelled to finish it. It is good to always leave table with just a little bit of hunger. Avoid most oily stuff, and if you get a salad, do not dress it! Dressings make the whole point of salads moot. Go more often for fish than meat...

Ok, the exercise part. Really, nobody I know finds lifting weights with numbers being fun. Even if you imagine you are achieving a new skill level on dumbells. Exercise should be fun and entertaining, otherwise you'll shy away from it. I do not run, I feel like a hamster on a threadmill. I prefer playing raquetball, or something more entertaining. I do weights. As several other people have said, it is good, pumps up your metabolism... But I do it with friends. Actually, gym sessions are when I socialize more (hard to socialize when I'm working on a PC). Even days when I'm tired, I still go to meet the regulars, talk about weekends and such, and joke around. That makes exercise less of a chore, more of something I look forward too. And all my weight friends are gamers. I do agree that it is hard some times to find people, for an unknown reason, girls at the gym are very defensive, and guys have most of their interest in watching themselves on the mirror. Still, you can find people to go, or find friends and then decide on the gym.

Small changes in the daily lifestyle also help. You work on a third floor? Walk up there. You go to the supermarket? Do not fight for a first line parking spot, walk.

Well, I'm sure I might be forgetting things. Like swimming is a very good exercise, does muscle, cardio, it adjusts to your level... and you never know when it might come in handy .

I think it's important to mention some things that most people trying to lose weight miss out on. I'm sure some of this is rehash but it's KEY STUFF.

Believe me, if you don't follow most of these, you're bound to FAIL, no matter how many calories you cut. You'll eventually CRASH and scarf down 10 burgers.

I'm a medical student for what it's worth so I have some idea on what I'm talking about.

1) Losing weight is 90% diet and 10% exercise. You could run miles till you die but it doesn't matter if you don't cut calories. You don't burn that much exercising. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

2) No more sugar. This is the easiest way to lose weight. Sugar = insulin spike. Insulin promotes fat storage and inhibits lipolysis. You're screwing yourself royally everytime you eat any sugar. Yes it's as bad as you think.

3) Cut soda. Period. NO more sugar drinks. Use diet soda if you really need it. No ifs or buts. One can of soda will screw you for the whole day. No fruit juice while you're at it too.

People think WOW I'm drinking OJ, that's good for you right? Check the sugar content. "Natural sugar be it fructose, lactose, etc" gets converted to glucose really fast too. Glucose = Insulin Spike = FAT STORAGE FAST.

To be honest if you drink nothing but water, you will find that you will cut an EASY 400-500 calories a day and no more insulin spikes.

4) Try to cut down on carbs especially white bread, rice, potatoes. Even the "wheat breads" of today are

5) Don't cut calories too fast or your body will drop your metabolism really quickly and you'll be screwed.

6) NEVER EVER skip breakfast. Your metabolism drops to a crawl and you're pretty much screwed for the day.

7) GET ENOUGH SLEEP. Yes we all have a busy life, but all your growth hormones are released at 10 PM -8 AM during sleep. You don't sleep, no growth hormone. No fat breakdown, muscle buildup, etc...

Don't eat full meals. Graze throughout the day.

9) Largest meal of day = breakfast. Smallest = dinner

10) Go to sleep 2 hrs after your last meal. Last meal should be something small and protein rich.

I'm 5'11" male, 175 lbs and been that way since forever (24 y/o). I eat HORDES of food, seriously I'm the guy that packs away 6-8 plates at a buffet. I don't gain any weight in general though because I follow a simple rules :
1) no drinks except water
2) never skip breakfast
3) Sleep well
4) Don't eat before going to bed.
I eat tons of food throughout the day, easily 3000 calories or more. Some of it is genetics but a lot of it is what you eat.

I think it's commendable you guys are doing this, I'm trying to build some mass myself.

Hope this helped. Good luck all!

Basketball, Genius...

If only I could find people to PLAY WITH. Sad thing is, if you're surrounded by people who aren't motivated to do such an activity, more than likely neither are you.

Hi all... longtime RL reader (and have been a forum member for awhile, but never posted.) This topic caught my eye however, so I'm going to jump on this wagon...

I'm 5' 6" and range from 230 to 240 lbs. (I don't know my exact weight as I haven't stepped on a scale in about a year now.) My biggest problem is work... I work long hours where my day usually starts when it's still dark out and ends when the sun has long gone away. To add to this problem, my job mostly involves sitting, although I find as many excuses as possible to have to walk and visit other people during the day.

I want to lose about 40 lbs to begin with. To drop below 200 lbs would be great, as I haven't seen that in years. I think my first step will be to renew my gym membership and start doing cardio and weights again. I'm going to shoot for going to the gym first thing in the morning (5:30AM) before heading into work. My second step is to attempt to cut down/out my Pepsi/Coke (and alcohol) consumption. I hope it's a start at least and that I can stick it out... The hardest part is that I don't really have anybody else who is willing to do this with me, so it's going to be a lone trip...

My personal problem with the "eat small meals throughout the day" is that I work in a warehouse and can't have food out on the floor. Distraction and hazard for the machines around us (or under ). Then I get a 30 min. lunch so I have to scarf lunch and get right back to it. No time for grazing!

Breakfast rarely happens for me either... =\

There was a site i tried once. it basically counted calories for you.

thru more internet research, i discovered i could eat about 1500 calories a day at my current activity nutin (couch potato) and lose some weight...

i don't remember the sites or all they said...

but counting calories could be done with pen and paper (kind of a silly notion to all these net geeks i'm sure)

and i try to go walking at the local park. its by the river and just a lovely area. it's a moderate walk at abouy 15 mins. i'd like to try to do this daily, but so far i may go once a week.

i'm basically just trying to get moving. my eating habits stink, but i've got no money and basically depend whatever is here at home (live with parents). but so long as i can keep moving to remind my body, "hey, live" i think i'll make it.

i dont know if i've lost or gained anything. scared to weigh.

i made the same promise of not getting to 200, yet i fear i've gone there. my target weight is about 140. i'm 5'5" my target size is at least in the lower plus sizes. i'd LOVE to be a size 10, but dunno.

That's a problem for me too... I usually skip breakfast and on really busy days (on the order of 2-3 days a week) I either skip lunch completely or take a really late and quick lunch. Dinner's really about the only time I have to eat much during the day...

Hm... I should probably also cut my coffee consumption down...

UberBeth";p="598024 wrote:My personal problem with the "eat small meals throughout the day" is that I work in a warehouse and can't have food out on the floor. Distraction and hazard for the machines around us (or under ). Then I get a 30 min. lunch so I have to scarf lunch and get right back to it. No time for grazing!

Breakfast rarely happens for me either... =\

I can understand the can't eat small meals thing since you are working. But no breakfast?

Sorry I wake up at 7 am and go to bed at 1-2 am everyday. I eat a full breakfast almost every day. If I can do it, everyone can. It's possible. Just make it routine!

Tho i do believe u don't really need those diets that cut things out. I think it's just the amount of calories. and exercise to shape those muscles to tone the body.